After lunch, there was a forty-five-minute tactical meeting, followed by a formal field practice.
Lu Ke, Logan, and Marcus followed the crowd, slowly moving toward the tactical meeting room. The two of them were giving him advice on the meeting, which was clearly different from their college days.
"...But I think you'll be fine," Logan said as he walked into the meeting room. In the next second, the entire room fell silent, and his voice suddenly became louder, echoing throughout the room. Logan was startled. He quickly turned his head and saw over thirty pairs of eyes staring at him—
More accurately, at Lu Ke behind him.
Logan's sudden stop made Lu Ke stop as well. Then, Marcus ran into Lu Ke's back. "Damn it, dude, traffic jam." After that, there was a lot of chattering and complaining from outside the door, which was a bit noisy.
The intense and sharp gazes, each with a different tone, seemed to have different temperatures and expressions: contempt, provocation, disdain, ridicule, sarcasm, anger, teasing... The eyes that were just waiting for a show were like sharp thorns, stabbing into Lu Ke's skin. In less than a second, he became a porcupine—covered in arrows.
About thirty-three to thirty-five players had their arms crossed over their chests, their chins held high, and they stood in a row, quietly waiting for Lu Ke to come. The sheer power and intensity of their presence were enough to make anyone's heart tremble, like a monster with a wide-open mouth, waiting for its prey to fall into the trap.
The treatment of a Chinese American player was indeed different, and the scale of the confrontation was extraordinary.
Lu Ke's eyes lit up a little. He straightened his back, walked in with a calm pace, and the hallway behind him became unblocked. The meeting room became noisy again, and it seemed like everyone had gone back to chatting, but the corners of their eyes were still on Lu Ke. Every move he made was watched by everyone.
After a quick scan, Lu Ke chose a seat in the first row and sat down calmly.
In all his years of living in the U.S., Lu Ke knew that being a "Chinese American" was like wearing a fluorescent yellow safety vest. His very existence was conspicuous. Even if he tried to be low-key and hide, he was still like a bright light, easily becoming the most obvious target. Being low-key wouldn't solve the problem, so it was better to be conspicuous.
Clearly, the stage had been set. Instead of avoiding it, it was better to face it head-on.
Marcus looked at Lu Ke, who was sitting down, in a daze. It was like a school classroom, where everyone tried to hide in the back of the meeting room to avoid the coach's radar, but now Lu Ke was sitting right in the first row, putting himself directly under the coach's nose. This was basically walking into a trap.
Logan bumped Marcus on the shoulder and gave him a confident and expectant smile. "Don't worry. Just sit."
As neighbors and childhood friends, Logan knew Lu Ke well. He wasn't the type to be taken advantage of. High school in the U.S. could be very cruel and cold, and if Lu Ke didn't have a few tricks up his sleeve, there was no way he would have survived on the football team.
Just now, Logan had noticed a flash in Lu Ke's eyes. So, not only was Logan not worried, but he was also a little excited. Looking at the stunned Marcus, Logan said only one word, and then sat down next to Lu Ke.
Bloody Bambi.
Marcus didn't quite understand. After a moment of hesitation, he also sat down on the other side of Lu Ke.
Suddenly, a burst of laughter erupted from the back of the meeting room. The laughter was so loud and intense that everyone turned their heads to see what was going on. But no one answered. They just started whispering to each other, and the murmurs passed from one ear to another, leading to another, even bigger burst of laughter.
"What's wrong with them? Have they gone crazy?" Marcus asked, confused and frowning.
Lu Ke slightly raised an eyebrow. "I'll bet a bag of potato chips it's about me."
The laughter came and went, like a fit of madness. In the blink of an eye, it seemed like everyone in the back of the meeting room was in on the joke, but the people in the front were still in the dark. That feeling of being left out of the loop was really annoying.
"Hey, rookie." A voice called out. Lu Ke knew it was for him. He turned his head, and a white, cloth-like object was thrown over, landing directly on his head. The meeting room erupted in wild laughter, and it felt as if the entire room was shaking.
A T-shirt. It was a clean, cotton T-shirt.
This prank from the veteran players was weak. It was too childish and too tame. If it were him, he would have done something to the T-shirt itself, like soaking it. He had a lot of ideas for what kind of liquid to use. Lu Ke was even in the mood to make fun of them internally.
Amidst the laughter, Lu Ke calmly took the T-shirt off his head. He didn't rush to respond but instead unfolded it and looked at it. It was a printed T-shirt with black letters on it that said, "I just want to get a head/XXX/job," and next to it was a speech bubble with a picture of Lu Ke from the rookie training camp, as if he had said the words himself.
This kind of prank was cheap and crude, but it was simple, brutal, effective, and most importantly, it was direct. Especially among athletes, the cruder the joke, the better it works.
"Yo, yo, Bambi. I didn't know you had a thing for that," someone shouted. The entire meeting room erupted in laughter as if a volcano had just erupted.
Logan and Marcus exchanged a glance, their faces looking a little grim as they looked at Lu Ke with concern.
Unexpectedly, Lu Ke stood up slowly. In front of everyone, he calmly put the T-shirt on. Then he turned around to face all the players in the meeting room, a smile on his face.
As Lu Ke calmly put the T-shirt on and smiled, the laughter in the meeting room gradually subsided. The rise and fall of the laughter was like a ridiculous comedy. In the end, everyone was stunned and at a loss, not understanding what Lu Ke was trying to do.
Colin looked around and finally couldn't help but step forward and shout, "Man, what's wrong? Do you like it?"
"Of course. Why wouldn't I?" Lu Ke said with a smile and a calm demeanor. "Is there anyone on the team who needs a service? You can line up here now. I didn't know so many people on the team were out of the closet."
Self-deprecating humor is always the best way to fight back against a prank. What's more, Lu Ke wasn't just defending himself; he was taking the offensive.
Silence. A deathly silence. Not a single sound. The prank was meant to be on Lu Ke, but by him so openly admitting it and then fighting back, the insulting words were thrown back at them. Caught off guard, everyone was stunned and looked at each other.
Colin gritted his teeth and cursed angrily, "Faggot."
"Number one." Lu Ke even raised his right hand and held up a finger, starting to count. Colin Kaepernick was the first to "come out of the closet." Now, no one dared to say anything, and it was completely silent, as if they were afraid of being the second.
It's worth mentioning that the finger Lu Ke held up was the middle one.
He looked around the room, and then he looked around again. Not a single person dared to meet his eyes. Then, Lu Ke's voice was heard. "Come on, guys, it's just a joke, right?" Lu Ke took the lead in the confrontation, and then he took the lead in defusing it. The awkward and tense atmosphere melted away, and the veteran players were so surprised that they were speechless.
The victim of the prank had, in the blink of an eye, taken control of the prank.
Lu Ke pointed to his T-shirt. "I mean, this T-shirt is just a prank, right?" That's why he fought back with a prank. He wasn't trying to hurt anyone's feelings, and there was no need for anyone to take it too seriously. "Or is there someone on the team who has a crush on me and this is their way of confessing?" After saying that, Lu Ke made a face, as if he didn't want to hurt the person who confessed.
The prank, which was a clear personal attack and discriminatory, was not only defused by Lu Ke's back-and-forth but was also filled with sarcasm and humor. Unconsciously, some of the awkwardness between the players was eliminated, and it brought them closer.
Attack, defend, counterattack. The back-and-forth happened so quickly that people hadn't even had time to react before Lu Ke had taken control of the atmosphere of the entire meeting room. In a daze, the situation had been completely reversed. For a moment, everyone was stunned and a little lost.
"Pfft," Aldon Smith was the first one to lose it and let out a laugh, then it was Logan and Marcus, and then other players who started to laugh quietly. The atmosphere in the tactical meeting room became relaxed without them even realizing it.
They...should they be laughing? The players looked at each other and exchanged glances. They couldn't quite tell, but it seemed like smiling was the right choice, so they did.
Sitting in the crowd, Colin's face was pale with rage, and he couldn't say a word.
"Clown." A voice rang out, and the laughter stopped abruptly. Everyone's eyes turned toward the source of the sound, and the instigator shouted again, "A clown who's just trying to get attention! The T-shirt means you're a homosexual. You can't even figure that out, and you think we're just having a friendly joke with you. You're so stupid."
Faced with the prank, Lu Ke's counterattack was so clever and so humorous, and also so intelligent. With a few casual words, he not only reversed the situation from being on the receiving end, but he also went on the offensive and even helped to ease the tension between the rookies and the veteran players. The whole process happened so fast that some people didn't understand what was going on. Their reactions were slow, so they "kindly" and "good-naturedly" stood up to explain.
Little did they know that the so-called explanation just made them a laughingstock. Simply put, they weren't smart enough. He was the real clown, making a fool of himself without even knowing it.
NOTE:
New chapters drop three times a day, every Monday through Saturday! Plus, you have the power to unlock more: we'll release three bonus chapters for every 100 votes! Let's get this story moving together.
Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/MistaQuartz
Explore up to 20 chapters in advance!